Churchmanship

Churchmanship (or churchpersonship; or tradition in most official contexts) is a way of talking about and labelling different tendencies, parties, or schools of thought within the Church of England and the sister churches of the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Churches (Shahan).

The term is derived from the older noun churchman, which originally meant an ecclesiastic or clergyman but, some while before 1677, it was extended to people who were strong supporters of the Church of England and, by the 19th century, was used to distinguish between Anglicans and Dissenters. The word "churchmanship" itself was first used in 1680 to refer to the attitude of these supporters but later acquired its modern meaning. While many Anglicans are content to label their own churchmanship, not all Anglicans would feel happy to be described as anything but "Anglican" (Neill:398). Today, in official contexts, the gender-neutral term "tradition" is preferred.

"High" and "Low", the oldest labels, date from the late 17th century and originally described opposing political attitudes to the relation between the Church of England and the civil power. Their meaning shifted as historical settings changed and, towards the end of the 19th century, they had come to be used to describe different views on the ceremonies to be used in worship. Shortly after the introduction of the "High/Low" distinction a section of the "Low" Church was nicknamed Latitudinarian because of its relative indifference to doctrinal definition. In the 19th century this group gave birth to the Broad Church which, in turn, produced the "Modernist" movement of the first half of the 20th century. Today, the "parties" are usually thought of as Anglo-Catholics, evangelical Anglicans, and Liberals and, with the exception of "High Church", the remaining terms are mainly used to refer to past history. The precise shades of meaning of any term vary from user to user and mixed descriptions such as liberal-catholic are found. Today "Broad Church" may be used in a sense that differs from the historical one mentioned above and identifies Anglicans who are neither markedly high, nor low/evangelical nor liberal (Hylson-Smith:340).

It is an Anglican commonplace to say that authority in the church has three sources: Scripture, Reason and Tradition. In general, the Low churchman and the Evangelical tends to put more emphasis upon Scripture, the Broad churchman and the Liberal upon reason and the High churchman and/or Anglo-Catholic upon tradition (Holmes III:11; Carey:14–16). The emphasis on "parties" and differences is necessary but in itself gives an incomplete picture. Cyril Garbett (later Archbishop of York) wrote of his coming to the Diocese of Southwark:

I found the different parties strongly represented with their own organizations and federations... But where there was true reverence and devotion I never felt any difficulty in worshipping and preaching in an Anglo-Catholic church in the morning and in an Evangelical church in the evening"... and when there was a call for united action... the clergy and laity without distinction of party were ready to join in prayer, work and sacrifice.

— (Garbett:27)

and William Gibson commented that

the historical attention given to the fleeting moments of controversy in the eighteenth century has masked the widespread and profound commitment to peace and tranquility among both the clergy and the laity.... High Church and Low Church were not exclusive categories of thought and churchmanship. They were blurred and broad streams within Anglicanism that often merged, overlapped and coincided.

— (Gibson:1, 2)

A traditional poem to describe churchmanship is "Low and Lazy, Broad and Hazy, and High and Crazy." Lazy refers to simpler worship, hazy to unclear tradition or beliefs, and crazy to excessive ceremonialism.

Sometimes the concept of churchmanship has been extended to other denominations. In Lutheran churches it can be liberal Protestant, pietist, confessional Lutheran, or evangelical Catholic.

Gallery

• 
  Chancel of Newcastle Cathedral (High Church)
• 
  Altar of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate (Low Church)
• 
  Interior of St Ann's Church, Manchester (Broad Church)
• 
  Interior of All Souls Church, Langham Place (Evangelical Anglicanism)
• 
  Interior of St Giles Church, Durham (Central churchmanship)
• 
  Chancel of All Saints, Margaret Street (Anglo-Catholicism)

See also

• Central churchmanship
• Liberal Anglo-Catholicism
• Conservative Evangelicalism in Britain
• Homosexuality and the Anglican Communion
• Crypto-papism
• Crypto-Calvinism

References

• Balleine, G. R. (1909). A History of the Evangelical Party. London: Longmans, Green & Co. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bebbington, D. W. (1993). Evangelicalism in Modern Britain. London: Routledge.
• Bennett, Gareth (1998). To the Church of England. Worthing, UK: Churchman Publishing Ltd. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Carey, George (1996). "Celebrating the Anglican Way". In Bunting, Ian (ed.). Celebrating the Anglican Way. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
• Chadwick, Owen (1996R). The Reformation. London: Adam & Charles Black. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Chadwick, Owen (1987). The Victorian Church (2 vol). London: Pelican. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Cragg, Gerald C. The Church and the Age of Reason 1648–1789. London: Pelican (revised 1960). {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davies, Julian (1992). The Caroline Captivity of the Church. Oxford: Clarendon Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Garbett, Cyril (1947). The Claims of the Church of England. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
• Gibson, William (2001). The Church of England: 1688-1832. London: Routledge.
• Holmes III, Urban T. (1982). What is Anglicanism?. Wilton, Connecticut: Moorehouse-Barlow Co.
• Hylson-Smith, Kenneth (1989). Evangelicals in the Church of England: 1734–1984. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hylson-Smith, Kenneth (1993). High Churchmanship in the Church of England. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
• Neill, Stephen. Anglicanism. London: Pelican: Revised and reprinted: 1960. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shahan, Michael (2008). A Report from the Front Lines: Conversations on Public Theology: A Festschrift in Honor of Robert Benne. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-4863-5.
• Smyth, Charles (1962). The Church and the Nation. London: Hodder & Stoughton. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rosman, Doreen (2006). The Evolution of the English Churches. Cambridge University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Spurr, John (1991). The Restoration, Church of England, 1646–1689. London: Yale University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Trevelyan, G.M. (December 1944). History of England. London: Longman Green & Co. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)